P1 Education - Gender DEA

Question 1

What does the KS2 table tell us about boys and girls’ achievement in primary school?

Answer 1

Girls consistently outperform boys, the gender gap in percentage points remains much the same from 2012 – however the percentage meeting the expected standard in 2016 was much lower due to a new and harder test.

Question 2

What does the table regarding GCSE attainment show us about boys and Girls?

Answer 2

It shows the gender gap steadily widened from 7.6 in 1990 to 10.6 in 2002, after this it narrowed in 2010 to 7.2 and then rose again to 8.9 in 2016.

Question 3

What does the A level table tell us about male and female attainment?
What does the average point score table tell us about A level results?

Answer 3

1. It shows that the gender gap is steadily closing from 3.3 in 2001 to 0.3 in 2010.
2. It indicates that males averaged a C grade and females a C+ - despite being behind overall boys are slightly ahead in top grades – in 2016 8.5% of boys and 7.7% of girls were awarded an A*.

Question 4

What does the graph tell us about the numbers of men and women in higher education?
What does the table tell us about the number of men and women attaining top class degrees?

Answer 4

It shows that the number of men and women in higher education has grown rapidly over the past 45 years – but the rate of growth has been much faster for women

Question 5

What are the conclusions of gender gaps in education?

Answer 5

• The picture often presented by the media is of girls racing ahead and boys trailing behind, of achieving girls and failing boys
• However in practice the picture is much more complex than that:
• In general, both males and females have improved their performance, over the last 45 years
• On balance girls and young women are outperforming boys and young men at every level of the education system.